How we're shaking up Platformer for the AI era

Casey Newton· Host0:00

[ on-hold music] This is Platformer Plus. I'm Casey Newton. The following column was created using a synthetic voice clone made by ElevenLabs. [upbeat music] In today's episode, how we're shaking up Platformer for the AI era, on newsletters in the age of AI automation, plus Musk and OpenAI in court, and China blocks Meta's Manus acquisition. This column touches on AI. My fiancé works at Anthropic. See my full ethics disclosure here. One, as I do most mornings, I began work yesterday by checking my signal messages. Along with the usual unwanted PR pitches and messages from people in the middle stages of AI psychosis, I had received a genuinely great tip. It was a story squarely in our coverage area that, if properly covered, could draw attention to a pressing issue on tech platforms and put pressure on it to change. The tip should have filled me with excitement. Instead, though, I felt something closer to dread. When was I going to begin making the many phone calls needed to verify this information? How could I find time to meet a source or two in person? Did I have all the sources I would need, or would I need to somehow develop some more? Since I began writing a daily newsletter in twenty seventeen, I have always faced some version of these pressures. My historical approach has been to report scoops whenever I can and fill out the rest of the time by writing news analysis, bolstering it whenever I can with extra details